5 Social Media mistakes you could be making

No matter the size of your business, one thing is clear; social media has, beyond any doubt, become an essential part of your online marketing efforts.

However, corporate presence on social media is still relatively young and even international brands with entire social media teams struggle with defining a social media strategy that actually brings results.

You should always keep in mind that each industry is different and so is their respective audience. So, developing one identical strategy that works for all is not quite possible. There are, however, some common great social media practices and some common mistakes.

In this article, we will be focusing on some of the most common social media mistakes you should stay away from in order to get the right kind of attention for your company.
Below are five mistakes that can have a negative impact on your brand personality. Some are very easily avoided, while others require more effort.

5 Social Media Mistakes You Could Be Making

1. Lack of Connection between your Marketing and Social Media goals
Let us give you an example: If your main marketing objective, at a given time, is to drive more traffic to your website or e-shop, you should make sure all of your campaigns work together to achieve the desired outcome, social media included. If not, you are just confusing your audience.
Focus on your message and your desired voice of tone. If you are new to social media, start with establishing these two key-points and be consistent across all platforms.

2. Too Self-Promoting
Your number 1 social media goal is to convert followers into customers, but that shouldn’t be distinctly obvious. Most companies have a fair dose of self-promotion on social media. That’s normal, and people expect it.
Most users escape on social media to get away from all the information following them around. What they want is to see more content that is relevant to them.
Sell, but do it through content. Be informative and, most importantly, be useful. Use blog articles to inform, tutorials to educate and great visuals to provoke emotion!

3. Low Audience Engagement
If you are struggling with engaging with your audience, you might have missed one important factor, the social factor. Think of social media as a social event where interaction is the foundation. Start a conversation, reply, ask questions. According to HootSuite, more than 67% of consumers will go on social media for customer service and they expect to get it fast. If you want to start building successful online relationships with your customers, be as interested in your audience as you want them to be interested in your business.

4. Lack of a Social Media Plan
Don’t jump into social media without having a plan. Start with developing a calendar highlighting your content strategy on social media. Creating a social calendar is the best way to efficiently manage your time and resources. Populate it with dates that are important to your company or your audience.
Utilize themed posts to add consistency and a bit of fun to your social media. Examples of themed posts include a team or office photo on a Friday or even a motivational quote on Mondays.

5. Misunderstanding of the Platforms
Yes, they are all social networks, but each one requires its own strategy with unified messaging across all platforms.
Twitter and LinkedIn are great for B2B marketing with the latter being the ideal platform for building relationships in your industry.
On the other hand, Facebook offers great perspectives for both B2C and B2B tactics. Successful Facebook campaigns consist of a combination of videos, images, and concise copy.
Instagram started off as a photography platform and quickly became part of our lives. This social network is too popular to ignore. It’s in the hands of your audience, wherever they go so if your business isn’t on Instagram these days, you’d better have a good reason!
When it comes to Instagram, we recommend sharing visually effective content and relevant industry hashtags to get your message out there.